Mozambique’s Ana Isabel Fotine, the only female civil engineer at a
recent workshop on groundwater on Nov. 18 and 19 in the Botswanan
capital Gaborone, said lack of capacity to locate underground water
resources or determine its quality and quantity was among the
challenges faced by her country.
"Just knowing how much groundwater we have is a challenge. We have only
one hydrological map in the country and so it is not easy to know the
resources that we have. Getting communities to look after the boreholes
once they have been drilled is another challenge," she told IPS.
She suggested community mobilisation and education to help communities
better appreciate communal water points. Fotine was speaking at a
two-day workshop on the management of groundwater in the Southern
African Development Community region, organised by the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), the African Ministers' Council on Water
(AMCOW), the University of the Western Cape through UNESCO's Chair in
Hydrogeology and GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische
Zusammenarbeit, the German agency for sustainable development).
Mozambique has an area of just over 800,000 square kilometres and
Fotine said trying to monitor groundwater exploitation was a nightmare
for the handful of experts in the country.
"We do not even know how many boreholes there are in the country," she
said. Without basic knowledge of this kind, it is impossible to track
the impact of exploitation of groundwater over time and develop sound
management policy.
Professor Eberhard Braune, UNESCO's Chair in Geohydrology based at the
University of the Western Cape, said the lack of qualified people in
the public sector is a challenge.
"That lack of capacity is perhaps even more serious in groundwater
management because groundwater, geology and mining are related. When
the mining sector booms you will not see people in groundwater because
they have a qualification that enables them to go into the mining
sector," he said.
He added that national capacities to generate data on water management
variables needed to be beefed up so that each country can have a
holistic picture of its groundwater situation and potential for future
exploitation.
Phera Ramoeli, the senior manager for water at the SADC secretariat, said groundwater remains largely undervalued.
"Economic valuation of water is still a process that will take a long
time and we need to be able to demonstrate to policy makers that water
is a basic resource that we can't do without," he said.
Speaking to IPS by telephone from Windhoek, Namibia-based economics
professor John Odada concurred. "Economic valuation of groundwater
should not be pegged to secondary uses of water such as electricity
generation. The value of groundwater should be pegged also on its
satisfaction of human and livestock needs."
Odada said the significance of groundwater to national economic development varies from one country to another.
"For the countries that need it more, it is essential that it is
included in the policy framework for water management," Odada said.
At the end of the workshop, participants recommended more aggression in
bringing groundwater into river basin agreements and addressing the
institutionalisation of groundwater at regional level.
They resolved to take advantage of 2009, which is the year for
Transboundary Water Management, to strengthen groundwater management
and confront the persistent lack of capacity for groundwater resources
management at all levels through the building of a variety of strategic
partnerships and emphasising groundwater's social and economic role.
Other recommendations include censuring groundwater's inclusion in
resource assessments and promoting sustainable management of
groundwater resources.
They also stressed the need to address the capacity of local government
to rely on groundwater for their water services and establishing a
strategic and mutually beneficial relationship/partnership with the
media as part of the major awareness-building challenge for groundwater
was also stressed.
Moses Magadza
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